Ideas Foundation

“Keep it simple.” That’s the principle at the heart of Ideas Foundation’s new website. It’s easy when you say it quickly – and it takes a lot of paddling away under the surface to achieve.

On the face of it, my task has been interface design – the look and feel of the website. But the project has also involved designing a working method and process, helping to find writers and web developer, project management and building a new approach to visual content, working with marketing specialist and Ideas Foundation trustee Chris Harris. It’s part of wider work over the past year on the structure, specifications and tone of Ideas Foundation’s brand.

So redesigning Ideas Foundation’s website to fit where the organisation is now and work as an active communication tool, there’s been behavioural stuff to think about. Each audience gets and shares information in a different way. And the internal audience is key too – it’s important that Ideas Foundation can ‘own’ the site, for communication and in keeping content fresh.

There’s been creative industry credibility to consider too, mirroring the industry in copy style and choice of images. Schwa Consulting has developed a new, more approachable language for communications and there’s a new approach to choosing and using pictures.

All while keeping the project as economical and quick as possible. So to avoid sacrificing quality, a responsive WordPress template has been bought in, used in kit form for the interface design and the site has been expertly developed, built and readied for launch by web consultant John Mounsey.

The site has been launched at the Ideas Foundation Celebration tea at the House of Lords.

I designed a dual purpose, folding, double-sided poster for that too, pointing guests at the website. I like designing multipurpose items for charities and social enterprises – it’s a great way of packing maximum value into minimum space.

That, of course, is just the beginning. There’ll be further development, training – and of course, lots of new content about Ideas Foundation’s projects, collaborations and news.